Roman Pelevin's novel "Chapaev and the Void" was published in 1996 and became a notable event. The next year he got to the extended Russian Booker Prize list in Russia, and even reached the finals in the struggle for the 2001 Dublin Literary Prize. In 2013, it seems, it will be possible to watch a film shot on this book.
Filming based on Pelevin's book begins in Germany. The initiative came from the director Tony Pemberton, who personally met with the writer while working in Russia. Pemberton believes that the plot, combining the themes of revolution, Russian modernity and the symbolic display of several paths of the country's future development, can become very relevant today. Pemberton also wrote a script with a rather free adaptation of the text, which Pelevin introduced and received his approval.
The filming is scheduled for September 2012, and the producers expect to complete the entire filming period in one month. This is due to the low budget of the picture, usually characteristic of art house-style tapes - only € 2.5 million was allocated for the shooting. The picture should be released in the rental next year, and will be called the same as the book published in America - Buddha's Little Finger ("The Little Pinky Buddha").
To star in the leading role of the decadent poet Peter Nether invited the British actor Toby Kebbell (Toby Kebbell), known for the paintings "Control", "War Horse", "Match Point". Chapaev will be played by German actor Andre Hennicke, bandit Volodin - Stipe Erceg (Stipe Erceg). The film is produced by Karsten Steter, and financed by three German and Canadian cinema support funds. After weighing the pros and cons, the organizers of the film process refused to shoot in Russia and decided to confine themselves to the city of Leipzig in Germany. Although, according to the director, this caused certain difficulties - for example, it was not easy to find an apartment in German houses that looked like a communal apartment.
The plot of Viktor Pelevin’s postmodern book is built around the transfer of Chapaev, Kotovsky, the commissar, revolutionary soldiers and sailors from Russia in 1919 to the country of the end of the last century. However, all these characters in the novel are not represented at all by the people with whom their names are associated. As, however, are the heroes of additional storylines, among which are, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger. What of the whole variety of lines and characters Tony Pemberton will leave in his film - we will see next year.
